The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-02-11

make legal transfer of her own pocket
handkerchief, too Young to make a legal
sale Of her own doll, is held to be old
enough 10 make legal transfer Of her own
honor. And more than that, If this little
girl after she is one day oven ten years of
age being cruelty and ruthlessly assaulted
in the most outrageous manner, If she can
not state before the Judge that she under
stands the nature of testimony, then her
own testimony concerning the abomina-
lions of which she has been made the vic
tim, is not to be taken, the testimony is to
be thrown out! And Mr.. Stead brought it
about that the age Of protection is raised to
sixteen years, and the girls testimony ever
after this is valid, although high authorities
in Parliament said, 3If you destroy the law
of testimony, you will break up the British
Constitutions" but they have broken up
the British Constitution Tlaughter1 and
the girls are protected, and the world goes
on, swings foreverdown the running grooves
of change, and we do not notice that any
collapse has vet occurred.
So much for William T. Stead in his
own nation. And now, friends, what
have we to say as corrollary from this
statement? We have it to say that though
it is an old proverb that Speech is silver
and silence golden in the presence of
these facts speech is golden and silence
becomes criminal; and we have it 10 say
that the hush-a-by, hush-a-by policy has
had centuries in which to dispert its vir-
tues, and its virtues are conspicuous by
their absence. Bad men would have good
women think that a gulf as wide as that
which separated Lazarus from Dives ought
to separate good and pure women from
impure women with whom those men con-
sort. Bad men would ike to have good
women think that to be pure they must be
ignorant, while we believe under this new
revelation that virtue is founded upon
knowledge: that virtue founded upon
knowledge is the Damascus plate cutting
every way, and that virtue founded upon
ignorance is but loaf Of sand that falls to
pieces upon the slightest attack Zap
plausel. That is the difference in the
theory as it is now held by thoughtful,
pure-minded people, the theory that has
come Into the brains of the White Ribbon
women within a twelve-month, just as I
have described.
Friends. Plato said, was it not Plato9
that Man is biped without feathers, :
and Victor Hugo said MAN is the only
animal that laughs" But the Duke of
Argyle said MAN is the only being who
ever shows harshness or cruelty toward the
weaker comrade at his side 1Applause].
| believe that in saying this, quoting ii
from one of the greatest naturalists, say
nothing that need bring any thought Of in
dignation toward any gentleman here to-
night. ''The lower orders are under in
stinct: the higher orders are under reason.
1t takes the longest time to develop that
which is most valuable. Reason and con-
science, the bright effulgent flowers of
Christianity, are worth the time it takes
to cultivate them, and Christianity is lift
ing manhood up into the image Of the
Highest So it is that my heart breaks
when any woman speaks lightly of Christ
ianity, when any woman does not stand by
that wondroGs Being who is the bright ex-
press image of Gods heart toward human
ity, and who said to the woman condemn
ed, the woman who had been brought in by
her aecuse,s. Neither do condemn thee;
go and sin no more;' who said to those
traitrous Pharisees, LET him who is with
out sin among you cast the first stone. y
On these two hang all the law and the
prophets of Social Purity.
The Cossacks of Russia, when they re-
turn from the wars in which they have
shown every atrocity toward women that
their opportunities permit them, will
beat with many stripes their own wives if
it is found that they have not been as
Caesars wife, above suspicion; bnt when
hear about some elegant lady on the ave
nue., who welcomes TO her elegant drawing
tured pure daughter some young man she
knows to be of dissolute life, | say to my
self Madam, your subservent smile is but
a shading of that subseryiency of the Cos
SACKS wife, who kneels to be whipped by
man thousand times more guilty than
herself" and when hear some simpering
belle saying that the gentleman to whom
she is engaged ''has sown his wild oats in
his time, he has seen the world, = | think
''poor girl, those words of yours ally you
closely with the abject women of the cruel
and heartless past.
There must be more self-respect upon the
part of women. Whoever comes to take in
hand consideration of the origin of evil,
will come very soon to study the origin of so
cal evil, and will find the two so closely cor
related he will hardly be able to tell where
the one leaves off and the other begins.
The world has lost its equilibrium; that
much we know, and some Of us believe it
will never more regain it until there shall
come about that change through which
side by side, and hand in hand, manhood
and womanhood, equal in tie advantages
of industrial pursuits, equal in the oppor-
tunity of selfprotection through the law,
shall come once more as brother and sister
of common hope beneath common sky
....a1 ,.,.i l.>,.;.x..